Large protruding panels, in which the thickness-dimension is substantially smaller than the length and width dimensions, are key components in a large variety of technologies and objects where they are referred to as “panels”. The term “panel” encompasses the terms “air foils”, “plates”, “fins”, “wings” and other surfaces when used in the relevant context. Hereinafter the term “object” or “body” in the following text refers to devices to which panels are coupled.
Panels can vary in size and shape as well as having various spatial configurations, not necessarily flat in shape. Examples for the use of such elements are solar-panels for satellites, various types of broadcasting and reception antennas and the elevation and stabilization devices used in wings of space ships, rockets and projectiles of various kinds.
Panels are so designed as to bestow a relative large footprint to the objects they are part of. The larger the area and span of wings of aircrafts and rockets, the greater are their maneuverability and gliding abilities. The advantages of large footprint-feature in flight may cause disadvantages and difficulties in storing, transporting and deploying of panel-equipped objects.
Folding and deploying panels in two different axes are known and four relevant patents are listed below:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,339 (Crossfield) disclosed a missile appendage deployment mechanism for receipt on the side of a missile or projectile and in a stowed position. The mechanism including a wing or fin which is designed, when deployed, to rotate upwardly from the stowed position into a feathered vertical position into the airstream of the missile. The wing moves upwardly from the horizontal stowed position into the vertical feathered position in a continuous smooth motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,442 (Miller) disclosed a self-deploying airfoil mounted on the body of a device such as an artillery shell projectile and folded down and forward with respect to the relative airstream. The airfoil is attached to a yoke by a pivot pin. The yoke shaft is pivoted in the body in a manner to allow it to pivot 90 degrees tangentially with respect to the body. The airfoil assembly may be retained by a cover which is removable to deploy the airfoil. The shaft of the yoke is mounted at a small angle to the axis of the body so that the airfoil has an angle of attack relative to the airstream when it pivots tangentially outward. When the cover is removed, a spring starts the airfoil rotating out into the airstream where drag drives it to the 90 degree position. The yoke is locked in the 90 degree position by a yoke lock pin. The airfoil, which is rigidly attached by pins to the pivot pin, cannot begin to rotate about the pivot pin until the yoke has rotated 90 degrees. A flat on the head of the pivot pin rides on the surface of the body preventing rotation in a vertical direction until the 90 degrees of tangential rotation has been completed. Aerodynamic lift acting on the airfoil then rotates it upward to a position about normal to the body axis where it is locked by an airfoil lock pin.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,049 (Rom et al.) described a wing, normally folded in an inoperative position and to be unfolded to an operative position when the body is accelerated in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the body. The appendage is pivotally mounted about a first pivot axis extending perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the body, and also about a second pivot axis extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body. The center of gravity of the appendage is outwardly of the first pivot axis in the folded condition of the appendage such that the acceleration of the body produces a moment pivotting the appendage about the first pivot axis.
WO8805898 (Eskam et al.) disclosed a finned projectile or missile having a housing with a longitudinal axis and several fins hinged thereon which in their deployed position are prestressed by springs in a position perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. To allow the fins to occupy as little space as possible in their folded position, but to supply a symmetrical lift in their deployed position, as in the case of blade-like fins, each fin has at its base an articulated pin inclined towards the longitudinal axis of the fin and is rotatably secured in a bore of the housing so as not to fall off, the bore being matchingly inclined towards the radial plane of the housing. On the outer side of the housing in the region of each bore, a cavity allowing the pivoting deployment of a corresponding fin is arranged, limited by a stopping shoulder for the fin which maintains said fin in a perpendicular position with respect to the longitudinal axis.